Why AMI was Formed

Our Country’s Most Vulnerable Group Are the Ones Who Struggle the Most.

Although the landscape and technology of the United States of America continues to change considerably, humanity must not forget their moral obligation of public accountability. We all must share in solving societal problems and the moral responsibility to aid in the alleviation of human suffering.

According to Nancy G. Guerra, EdD of the University of Delaware, “exposure to community violence is among the most detrimental experiences children can have, impacting how they think, feel and act.” Similarly, in the article “Effects of Child Abuse and Exposure to Domestic Violence…” every year over 3 million children are exposed to domestic violence in their home. Furthermore, numerous studies have demonstrated that children exposed to domestic violence and/or child abuse are more likely to experience a wide range of adverse psycho-social and behavioral outcomes. Children in low-income communities are doubly disadvantaged. As Dr. Curtis Adams put it: “zip code” determines a child’s “over-exposure to toxins,” low income, substandard housing and early introduction to drug and alcohol abuse as well as violence; negatively impacting children’s emotional and physical health.

In a 2018 Philadelphia Inquirer article, Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Corrections reported that “14 percent of his inmates come out of the foster-care system, 50 percent have no high school diploma and 80 percent have been exposed to trauma… You see inmates come and go – and then you see their kids, and then their kids… When you start to look at what’s driving prison populations, it has less to do with criminal justice and more to do with education and economic opportunities. The zip codes where we get the most inmates from have the poorest schools districts, the highest numbers of single parent homes.” According to the paper, “generations of Philadelphia families are incarcerated together… and state prisons reflect incarceration rates that remain at near historically high levels.

The CDC researchers have found that the majority — 53 percent — of gun deaths in children were homicides… Of all children – boys, older kids and African American children – were the most likely to die in shootings, according to the study, published in the Journal Pediatrics. The NAACP announced that African American children represent 32% of children who are arrested, 42% of children who are detained, and 52% of children whose cases are judicially waived to criminal court. Spending on prisons and jails has increased at triple the rate of spending on Pre-K-12 public education in the last thirty years.